The number of players who tried out for soccer doubled from last year. Having so many athletes tryout forced head boys soccer coach Dusty Buell, the team’s coach, make difficult decisions.

“To see all the kids out there trying out is a beautiful thing, but it is also a coaches worst nightmare,” Buell said.

Having to send people home during the tryout week is a tough but mandatory decision to be made by the coach.

However, with the new year comes new players and with that comes a new style of play. This may be problematic for different players to figure out how to interact with each other on the field. Although, for Kaden Kearney (9) this does not seem to be too much of a bother.

“Everyone’s helping everyone to get better,” Kearney said.

Even though the team will have to revise their style, the newcomers also bring with them their own form of play.

Some of the new faces rounding the roster this year bring with them not only their skill but their ambition as well.

“I’m looking forward to winning a lot and just getting better as a team overall,” Kearney said.

So far, the freshmen this year have more than proved themselves.

“The freshmen that we have definitely deserve to be where they are,” Jakob Bergkamp (12) said.

photo courtesy of Faith LundinThe team makes a mad dash to recover and defend from their Buhler’s counter-attack. It’s important for midfielders like#17 Tommy Pittman (11) to be able to get back in time.

Coming onto the field are not just newcomers, the team also expect to see some returning talent as well. Last year the team did not have any seniors, so this year having five seniors is a good change. The team now has five seniors, contrary to last year when they didn’t have any at all.

With the team equipped with seniors, it seems dealing with the competition will be much easier.

Although there are many expectations placed upon the team, they are confident that they will pull through.

“We always talk about having a short memory on the team,” Buell said.

With this short memory, the team will forget the hardships of last year and move onto the new roads ahead.